On this day in 1955: 14-year-old Emmett Till was murdered for whistling at a white woman, one of the key events leading up to the civil rights movement.
Emmett, from Chicago, was vacationing in Money, Miss. He showed some boys a picture of a white girl and bragged that she was his girlfriend, so his friends dared him to talk to a white woman in the country store. Emmett went in and bought some candy. As he left, he said, “Bye baby” to Carolyn Bryant, the wife of the store owner.
A few days later, two men came to the cabin of Emmett’s uncle. Roy Bryant, the owner of the store, and J.W. Milam, his brother-in-law, drove off with Emmett. Three days later, Emmett Till’s body was found in the Tallahatchie River. One eye was gouged out, and his crushed-in head had a bullet in it.
The all-white jury deliberated for just over an hour, then returned a “not guilty” verdict. The foreman later said that the state failed to identify the body.
